Mas’ Daniel could not associate with ignorance without sharing its shade; and he could not give his black playmates his company, without giving them his intelligence, as well.
Douglass observes the reciprocal influence between individuals, noting that association with others inevitably leads to a sharing of both positive and negative traits.
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True it is that this faith was many times shaken by passing events, but never destroyed.
This was a new and special revelation, dispelling a painful mystery against which my youthful understanding had struggled, and struggled in vain, to wit, the white man’s power to perpetuate the enslavement of the black man.
Our very lack of preparation for the conflict disposed us to look for some other than the way of blood out of the difficulty.